Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (#8, Fiction)

Yay for guilty pleasures!

I started out a moderate fan of the Outlander series, and was kind of "eh" about the second book. But Voyager has definitely brought me back on board! I think the amount of soft porn from book 1 and 2 was replaced in book 3 with more adventure and gore.

With books like this I'm never really sure what to write in review. It's not taking home any prizes, but I was able to tear through close to 1100 pages in about five days.

I have never recommended the series to anyone, but now I think I will.... with many asterisks of course! :)

Blindness by Jose Saramago (#7, Contemporary Literature)

I think I need to institute a new rule with the books I read. NO MORE DEPRESSINGNESS. Seriously, why do all "good" books have to be depressing? Personally, I don't believe that, but pick up a Nobel prize winner and the chances of it being uplifting are basically nil.

I don't watch the news because I find it sad and full of death, destruction, and despair. I really don't want to spend my free time reading books about people sloshing through their own excrement and rationing food and drinking muck water. no gracias.

Normally when I read a book and I learn that there is a movie adaptation I want to see it to find out how closely it follows the book and what the characters could look like. Blindness, though.... I don't think I need to have a visual of the horribleness that I already read. I don't mean horribleness in the sense that it was a bad book or poorly written, because that is certainly not the case. Horribleness in the sense of the atrocities that humans will force onto each other, and the base conditions that people can somehow manage to survive through.

Next up... something a little lighter and able to cause a blush to rise to my cheeks... Voyager!

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (#4, Contemporary Literature)

I love love love this book. It's just so weird and quirky and well written. My first Tom Robbins novel was Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas and when I compare Jitterbug Perfume to it, I must say that I wish I had started my Robbins love affair with this one instead. The characters in this one are so much more likable and the four separate yet interwoven storylines are so much more interesting and riveting.

Jitterbug Perfume smacks of wisdom and reminds me of tarot cards. There is so much symbolism and history and folklore. Immortality is what the characters are searching for and it is through the sense of smell that we learn about death and the ancient figure Pan. This book inspires me, not to look for immortality, but to create something as vivid and layered and funny as this book was.

The Face by Dean Koontz (#6, Fiction)

I haven't read a Dean Koontz book since I was 13 years old. I can't remember the name of the book, but it scared the sh*# out of me! (After a little google searching, I believe the name of the book was Cold Fire.)

I try not to read "scary" books because I am often left wide awake and terrified, unable to fall back to sleep, but sometimes I just can't help myself. My mom suggested The Face as a decent Koontz book and I was due for an easy read, so I thought, what the heck?

It is what it is--and I was entertained. I don't know that I would recommend it to people--maybe as a spooky beach read, but that is about it.

Like Stephen King, I wonder about Dean Koontz... how do you come up with these psycho killers and crazy sci-fi themes? I'm pretty glad my mind does not come up with that sort of imagination!

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (#5, Classic)

I swear I have read this book before. Yet, as I read, nothing felt familiar. Did I just think I read it, or did I read it so long ago that I have completely forgotten it? I take issue with either option. If I never read it, shame on me! And if I read it so long ago that I don't remember it, shame on whoever made me read it because clearly I was not ready for it!

With this pocket sized book I was able to carry it with me all about town, which inevitably caused many people to either rant or rave (mostly rave) about the book to me. I think at least three people told me it was their "favorite book of all time". I got one "I hated that book"! All this made me think, if I saw someone reading it, what would I say?

I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I can vaguely relate to Holden. Growing up in New Hampshire, I had siblings, as well as many friends who attended boarding school. If you thought high school was bad, boarding school is a whole other breed of awful! But, I didn't hate high school, it wasn't the best years of my life, but I was happy, so that leaves me at a huge impasse with Holden. I have known people like Holden, those people DRIVE ME CRAZY. Wah, wah, wah. Holden's issues with people are the ironic (still trying to figure out how to use this word) part about the book. He goes on and on about all the phonies in the world, and all the liars, yet he is the phoniest and biggest liar of them all!

So, when asked about The Catcher in the Rye what would I say? It's worth reading but most definitely not my favorite book of all time. I really need to go back to the folks who told me that because I would really like to know what they loved SO MUCH about it.

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie (#4, Fiction)

I think I missed the boat on this one. Either that, or this book missed the boat.

Every now and then I caught a glimpse of an interesting story, or I suddenly had the desire to keep reading to find out more about this "Enchantress". But, whatever grabbed hold of me, quickly let go, and I was back to just wishing I could finish it and move on to the next book.

There were a lot of characters and twists in time and place that made me have to think extra hard about who was talking and whether they were in the present or the past. A bit more work than desirable.

I would like to think that because this was a book club pick I will be able to hash out my issues on Saturday. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that this book was unable to hold the interest of many book club members. I predict a 30% completion rate.

The Terror by Dan Simmons (#3, Fiction)

I started The Terror a year ago and threw in the towel after about 200 pages of nothing satisfying happening. My sister recommended this book to me and having greatly enjoyed Ahab's Wife, another book suggestion from her, I took a chance and tried to read this 700+ page book while completing the 50 books in a year challenge. Needless to say, when I wasn't making headway on it, I abandoned ship, leaving Captain Crozier and his frozen crew aboard the Terror for greener, shorter pastures.

Not in a rush to finish books this year, I decided to climb aboard Terror and give Dan Simmons and his very technical, very descriptive writing another chance. I struggled a bit getting back into the story but there are definite moments of brilliance. Certain characters start to grow on you and it gets harder and harder as the men keep dying from scurvy, or from attacks from the creature stalking the men. I think I kept reading because I really just wanted to know what the hell the thing on the ice was that kept killing the men.

As my sister said, there were several twists in the storyline that were highly shocking. And the last 100 pages made it worth slogging through 600 pages to get to. The explanation of the creature on the ice was highly satisfying but I do think that Simmons could have tightened his prose. The Terror shouldn't have been 700+ pages. I found the endless descriptions of the ships and the cold tiring. I wish the whole book could have been as good as the last 100 pages.